


Keeping in Touch

by Ailette



Category: Arashi (Band), Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Imported, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-19
Updated: 2010-06-19
Packaged: 2018-06-05 11:50:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6703492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailette/pseuds/Ailette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Nino has some free time and Toma is bullied into coming over to force him to relax.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping in Touch

**Author's Note:**

> Beta: eufry   
> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/53683.html)

Really, Toma thought as he was disinterestedly flicking through some magazine he’d found on the floor, he shouldn’t be the one feeling guilty here. After all, he wasn’t the one who was completely ignoring his guest – who had come over with only the best of intentions, a movie and a video game he knew Nino hadn’t played before - in favour of staring at an empty piece of paper.

Well. Admittedly, it hadn’t been him that had been worried, but Jun. A few hours ago, he’d gotten a call from his friend, first making some stiff small talk before suddenly asking if he’d happened to see Nino at all lately.

Toma had been surprised by the question; after all, Jun knew that both Nino and him were kind of bad at keeping in contact. Nino so rarely called or texted that it was almost rude, living in the firm belief that it was completely normal for friends not to see each other for weeks or months and then to suddenly meet up for dinner like they’d just seen each other the day before, and Toma usually just went with the flow and didn’t really try to get in contact with the older man either. Jun had just grunted something and then proceeded to mutter about Nino being quite stressed lately and that even though he had the next few days off, he probably wouldn’t properly relax unless someone was there to force him to do so.

Toma refrained from explaining the meaning of the word ‘relaxing’ to the other man and just agreed to go over. And, for all that Jun apparently tried to be tactful in not going to pester Nino himself, he was decidedly nosey when he started to snicker at Toma’s (probably a little too fast) assent. He’d always known it was a bad idea to tell Jun about his crush.

He was used to Nino being, at the very least, a little antisocial when he didn’t expect (or want) visitors, but even with that, he was surprised by the sight that greeted him when the door finally opened. Nino was wearing an old pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt at least two sizes too big, that had some weirdly phrased slogan of ‘Hip-Hop make LIFE!’ written on the front in broad letters, and he was fairly certain he’d seen Sho wearing in the past; outgrown bangs held out of his face by a glittery golden headband and an expression that clearly read ‘Fuck off’.

It didn’t help that Nino actually uttered the words out loud before turning on his heels and stomping back into his apartment. Taking the left-open door as a sign of invitation, Toma slipped inside and closed it softly behind him.

“I’m really happy to see you as well, thanks for the warm welcome,” he said cheerfully while getting out of his shoes. He frowned when there was no reply and made his way to the living room where he found Nino perched over the table and scowling at dozens of scribbled notes in front of him.

“Oh, you writing lyrics for a new song?” This time, the excitement in his voice had been real; he loved Nino’s songs, but he especially loved being able to watch the older man working on one of them. Nino just nodded, not glancing up as he dug out another piece of paper and started staring at this new one.

That had been over an hour ago now, Toma noted with a quick glance towards his watch. He’d made himself comfortable, but his friend hadn’t moved an inch. Well. Then again, he wasn’t sure how much that frown had deepened since his arrival. Might just be an inch. Now, he could either continue to read all about ‘Ninomiya Kazunari’s perfect girlfriend’ or actually get up and somehow distract the other enough to somehow coerce him into relaxing. He spared the _Duet_ in his hands one long suffering look, reminded himself that Nino made up answers to interviews depending on his mood (or sometimes weather) of the day and dropped it to the ground as he got up. It wasn’t like he wanted to become Nino’s _girl_ friend anyway. He wasn’t equipped correctly for that.

“Any progress?” he asked and leaned over Nino to look down at the still blank piece of paper.

“Go away,” Nino muttered and didn’t even glance up.

Toma did the exact opposite by resting his arms on the smaller man’s shoulders and shook his head. “What is this for, anyway? I thought there weren’t going to be any solo songs on your next album.”

“There aren’t.”

“Then stop stressing out over it and pay attention to your guest,” he whined and shook Nino a little. He almost got hit in the head for his trouble when Nino tried to shrug him off.

“Stop that!” Nino grumbled and Toma giggled a little at the way his voice sounded all shaken up thanks to his ministrations. “Seriously, Toma, you’re too heavy.”

Just to be mean, Toma stopped shaking his friend and instead leaned more of his weight on him. “That’s because normal sized people weigh more than ones who stopped growing at sixteen.”

On hindsight, he should have seen the elbow coming. As it was, it rammed none too gently into his ribs and he had to take a step back just to regain his breath. Damn that little brat. He kept underestimating his strength. And his vicious streak. But at least, Nino had turned around to glare at him properly.

“Are you saying I’m small?”

Toma grinned.  Mission ‘Get Nino’s Attention’: successful. “No,” he said innocently. “I’m just saying you have a complex because of it.”

It took Nino exactly ten seconds to get out of the chair and pounce on the younger man. They were lucky that Toma landed on the soft carpet and not any of the hard and breakable furniture in the room. The wrestling that started next only stopped when Toma started to fight dirty and tickle Nino’s sides until he was so out of breath that he couldn’t even squirm under the busy hands anymore. His headband had been lost at some point during the tousle, but that was a big plus in Toma’s eyes. The black strands of hair had a way of falling just so that they framed Nino’s light brown eyes and every now and then made him scrunch up his nose when he brushed them aside.

“I won,” Toma said breathlessly and plopped down back on the floor. “What do I get?”

Nino was wheezing next to him and smacked him half-heartedly on the shoulder. “Permission to stay and continue to go on my nerves?”

Toma started laughing. “Sounds good to me.”

He waited for Nino to stop panting and turned his head a little to properly look at his friend. “Wanna watch a movie? I brought one. Haven’t seen it yet, but its bound to be awesome.”

Nino raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh yeah? Just as awesome as that sappy wannabe war movie you made me suffer through? What was it…”

“ _ Pearl Harbor _ is a _great_ film. You just don’t like any war movies that don’t feature you,” Toma huffed and heaved himself back onto his feet to trudge towards his backpack to fish out the DVD. “But, seriously. You’re going to like this one. It has Kiefer Sutherland!”

Another frown as Toma helped him up and proceeded to drag him over to the big couch in front of the television. “That’s the guy from _24_ , right? I thought you’d be over your crush on him by now.”

Toma threw him a sheepish smile as he popped in the disc and lowered himself on the couch a little further away from Nino than usual. “I can hold onto crushes for years,” he said softly and concentrated on the screen, missing the curious glance the other shot him.

_ The Sentinel _ , it turned out after about 20 minutes into the film, wasn’t as bad as  _ Pearl Harbor _ . It just wasn’t particularly interesting either. But then, Toma wasn’t quite focused on the movie anyway. A familiar mob of black hair was tickling just under his chin and he thought briefly that he probably should have stopped the time to see how many minutes it had taken before he’d had Nino draped across his left side. Or even how many seconds before he’d lost the internal battle with himself and started to tangle his fingers in said mob of hair and twirl the soft strands between his index and middle finger with far more concentration than was strictly necessary.

It was just so normal to have Nino in his personal space – no doubt a result of having been around the older man since childhood. Johnny’s generally wasn’t a place with a lot of physical boundaries, but Nino was an extraordinary bad case. Having him draped across his shoulders basically ever since their first meeting, he supposed he’d gotten too used to it. It had never been anything special, he knew. All Nino needed to know to molest someone was their name (and sometimes not even that, as he had managed to greet some juniors for the first time by lifting their t-shirts). On hindsight, Nino might just be one of the big reasons why half the Juniors were always pecking each other's cheeks or cuddling or declaring their undying love for each other these days. He was reasonably certain that it hadn’t been this bad when he first joined.

“You’re a bad influence,” he mumbled his conclusion out loud and lightly tugged on the hair he still let fall through his fingers. “People forget the concept of personal space when they spend too much time with you.”

“You’re the one who came over,” Nino grumbled and apparently was about to move away when Toma quickly found his hand and firmly squeezed it to tell him wordlessly to stay put.

“No, I mean growing up around you. I thought it was a completely normal behaviour for boys to be snuggling until I got into a fight with some classmates who obviously had a different opinion on the matter.”

Nino laughed at that and shook his head a little. “That wasn’t my fault! You were the one who always wanted to hold hands and then just went for it. I’m pretty sure MatsuJun has a lot of our old photo clippings that hold proof of that.”

“Nah, that’s different. You grope _everyone_. I only held hands with people I really, really liked.”

He waited for Nino’s next comeback, expecting their banter to continue so they wouldn’t have to pretend to watch the film anymore. When even after several moments, nothing came; he nudged the smaller man playfully with his shoulder. He could hear Nino taking a deep breath and briefly wondered what that was about before he had to strain his hears to pick up on Nino’s whispered next words.

“Past tense?”

At first, he didn’t get it. But just as he was about to ask for clarification and turned to look at his friend, he noticed that Nino’s eyes weren’t directed at neither his face nor the screen in front of them. Curious, he followed Nino’s line of sight – and felt the strong urge to slap himself in the head when his gaze came to rest on their joined hands.

It was his turn to fall silent, even as he was mentally berating himself for just speaking without thinking again. He became aware of how much weight his next words might have to carry just by the way Nino’s small frame grew more and more tense against him the longer he had to wait for an answer. Somehow, they had gone from easy bickering to an unintentional almost-confession. Of all the times Nino could have picked up on something Toma did or said, of course it wouldn’t be something he’d done intentionally. Plans had a way of never working out with Nino; be it to meet at least once a month to catch up with each other, to play a prank on him or confess to him on Toma’s fifteenth birthday. The world at large seemed to just always throw something between their legs to stop it from happening.

Which was why maybe, this would be the only chance he would get. Or something ridiculously clichéd might happen, he mused as he closed his eyes with a slight sigh, like the phone ringing or Oh-chan coming over to confess his undying love for Nino right on the spot. There were still plenty of ways this could go wrong. He blinked his eyes open again and gently squeezed Nino’s hand in his; decision made.

“I’m still holding your hand now, aren’t I?” he asked quietly and almost stopped breathing when honey brown eyes abruptly snapped up to meet his own with an intensity in them that he’d rarely ever seen before.

Now, Toma hadn’t exactly done this countless times before, but he was fairly certain that the next step would be to kiss Nino and with that make his intentions 100% clear. Judging by Nino’s bright red ears, he was also as reasonably sure as he could be that said kiss would – at the very least – not end with Nino literally kicking him out of his flat.

Which is why, when he did lean down to kiss the younger man, he really didn’t expect to suddenly have a small hand covering his mouth and Nino squirming away a bit so he could properly look at Toma. Or rather, properly glare at Toma.

“I don’t put out before I’ve even been taken out on a single date,” he stated solemnly before letting his hand drop and his head find its way back onto Toma’s chest to feign interest in Kiefer Sutherland waving around a gun in someone’s face again.

Toma couldn’t help but whine. “Doesn’t this count as a date? We’re watching a movie together. _Snuggling_.”

Nino snorted dismissively. “If that counted as a date, I’d be dating at least half of Kanjani8 and all of Arashi,” he paused briefly, considering whether or not he could count half of NEWS as well when Nishikido was already counted in Kanjani8 and maybe not quite as willing to cuddle, seeing how he had to be sat on by at least two people for that.

“You have to at least pay for dinner.”

Toma didn’t bother to remark that this condition would only eliminate Yoko of his potential Johnny’s boyfriends, but instead proceeded to almost knock Nino off the couch in his excitement to get to the stack of take out flyers he knew to be in Nino’s kitchen.


End file.
